18 More Students Complete Septa's Summer Internship Program
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Septa had something to celebrate today: the graduation of 18 more students from its summer internship program, now in its fifth year.
It's a program that benefits both the students and the transit agency.
The students this year come from South Philadelphia, Mastbaum, Swenson, and the Workshop School, where they had already learned some technical skills, but Edgar Yambo says there's nothing like this real-world experience.
"I learned a lot of things in body work," he said today. "I'm a welder and I wasn't really into the electric, so they put me in the body side, working on the trolleys."
Of course, as deputy general manager Jeff Knueppel told the graduates, these are all skills Septa can use.
"I hope while you were in this internship, you really thought about a career with Septa, because the possibilities are amazing," he told the graduates.
For proof of those possibilities, the students met an alumnus of the program, Irving Then (below).
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"I got an eye-opening experience when I came to this program," Then says. "These guys, they gave me life advice, not just work advice."
Then is now a Septa apprentice, on his way to a career.